The Campbell County Police Chiefs Association is offering the academy for a third year beginning Wednesday, April 30. Classes meet at 7 p.m. each Wednesday for 12 weeks at different locations. As part of the academy, people will tour the county jail in Newport and use a computer simulator to practice split-second shoot-or-don’t-shoot scenarios police face.

“It was truly eye-opening,” he said. “I was in awe of what they do, and in awe of what I didn’t know.”

Now, when Cochran is loading his car with groceries at the Newport Pavilion he knows people might be watching to take a purse left unattended, and knows police watch the parking lots.

“We learned that’s a common place for people to use the drugs that they buy,” he said.

Cochran said he took the class to better understand how police deal with crime in the county he has lived in since moving from Wyoming, Ohio, in 1996.

“I have no aspirations to become a police officer,” Cochran said. “My wife and I, we both just wanted to become better citizens.”

The best part of the academy was learning what officers deal with daily, he said.

“You got to know these men and women on a little more of a limited personal basis,” he said. “They’re not just somebody in a uniform you wave at as they go by.”

Campbell County Police Department Chief Kieth Hill said a consolidated academy shows how police agencies work together and share information. Previously, the county police department and other departments offered their own unique citizen academies, Hill said.

Now, all participants in the consolidated class can hear from the officer specializing in drug investigations from the Highland Heights Police Department, Hill said.

Cold Spring Police Department Chief Ed Burk said academy participants get to hear from 911 dispatchers and experts in investigations and polygraphs. A visit to the Beckfield College firearms training simulator in Florence will put people through a set of scenarios, Burk said.

“These are things that we have to do in real time, and then someone says ‘Why did we shoot?,” he said.

The class also offers a chance to ride along with an officer for part or all of a shift, Burk said.

The point of the class is to share with the public how police operate and enlist their support, he said. The academy also debunks myths, including how DNA evidence on a television show can be identified in 24 hours.